My Roller Paint Job

August 03, 2010, 10:31:42 AM

I didn't mean to hijack the other thread. Sorry 4bangen.

Here's some more pictures.

The paint has only been on about a year, so I can't make any claims as to how it will hold up long term. I used urethane boat paint instead of Rustoleum because it is designed to withstand the elements. Boats sit out in the weather day-in and day-out, while my Cougar sits in the garage most of the time so I don't see why it shouldn't hold up fine for my purposes. The urethane is also designed to be rolled on as this is how boats are often painted. The urethane is also glossier than Rustoleum.

One reason I wanted to paint the car myself is because of two bodyshop repairs I had done on another vehicle. One was done at a "resoration" shop and the paint they blended started falling off after a couple of years. The other repair at a dealership bodyshop ended up being a different color, panels were misaligned, fasteners were missing, etc.

Even if this paint were to fail, I'm only out a couple hundred bucks and its been a great learning experience for me as I've never done bodywork or paint before.

This method does have its drawbacks. You can't roll metallics. Its very labor intensive and time consuming if you want good results. It would be difficult to paint your daily driver with this method, though it has been done. If you are ADD or don't have a fair amount of patience, this isn't the way to go. You won't get this done in a weekend!

I panted the car in this barn. The stalls on the left are dirt and my neighbors house is right behind the barn, so I really couldn't spray paint in this environment.

My Roller Paint Job

Reply #1 – August 03, 2010, 11:09:29 AM

I am impressed, that does not look like a roller job at all.

Great job man and thanks for the pics!

My Roller Paint Job

Reply #2 – August 03, 2010, 11:11:12 AM

Nice, this is getting to be more and more popular every day. Much better than a spraybombing.

My Roller Paint Job

Reply #3 – August 03, 2010, 12:19:35 PM

I'm assuming you rolled it, then cut and buff?

Maybe a write up should be done !

My Roller Paint Job

Reply #4 – August 03, 2010, 01:38:04 PM

Quote from: T-BirdX3;330548

I am impressed, that does not look like a roller job at all.

Great job man and thanks for the pics!

Thanks. I wish i had better pictures but its hard to get good pictures of the white paint.

Quote from: bhazard;330549

Nice, this is getting to be more and more popular every day. Much better than a spraybombing.

I agree. This paint is much better than spraypaint. Its just a lot of work.

Quote from: T-BirdX3;330551

I'm assuming you rolled it, then cut and buff?

Maybe a write up should be done !

The paint is thinned so its about the consistency of 2% milk. If you're doing it right, you won't have brush strokes, but you'll want to sand after every other coat to keep the orange peel down and get rid of the debris that lands in the paint and fix any runs you may have.

I did a final colorsand with 800 where needed, then 1,000, 1,500, and 2,000. I waited a couple of months before I did this and the paint was very hard. I later learned urethane should be sanded ASAP. I finished up by polishing three rounds with a PorterCable and Poorboys polish.

As I said, this was my first experience painting a car, so its not perfect. I have some sanding scratches and I burned through the paint in a couple of places. Inside under flourescent lights, I can see the flaws, but outside in the sun it looks fine. I've taken it to a couple of car shows and I've received plenty of compliments. It came out better than expected, but I plan to redo it at some point now that I know what I'm doing. Also, i want to change the color to off-white.

Here's some sites to read up on if you're interested:

http://www.rickwrench.com/index79mas...llarpaint.html

http://carpainting.wetpaint.com/page...urethane+Paint

http://rollyourcar.com/method.aspx

My Roller Paint Job

Reply #5 – August 03, 2010, 01:49:23 PM

Quote from: Davemutt;330543

I didn't mean to hijack the other thread. Sorry 4bangen.

Here's some more pictures.

I am really diggin those white painted steel rims with the dog dish caps! I know the Magnum 500 wheels look natural and fitting finishing off this classic but I enjoy the dog dish variation as well.

My Roller Paint Job

Reply #6 – August 03, 2010, 01:52:43 PM

Quote from: Davemutt;330558

Also, i want to change the color to off-white.

I dunno I am really diggin the "Grabber White" as I like to call it! I like the Performance White on my 08 Mustang. It's a lot cleaner and fresh looking in my opinion than some dingy off white which makes an older car look dated. I would not even have bought a white Mustang if it was any more off-white.

My Roller Paint Job

Reply #7 – August 03, 2010, 01:59:34 PM

Yes that is an awesome paint job. That is how ford used to do it way back in the days before Spraying paint was around. It just took so much time it slowed down production. That is why we spray paint today. Ford had to work out the bottle necks in its production line.

Stuck

My Roller Paint Job

Reply #8 – August 04, 2010, 10:08:41 AM

Quote from: Watchdevil;330561

I am really diggin those white painted steel rims with the dog dish caps! I know the Magnum 500 wheels look natural and fitting finishing off this classic but I enjoy the dog dish variation as well.

Thanks. I really like the Magnums on the 69-70 cars but I wanted to do something different.

Quote from: Watchdevil;330562

I dunno I am really diggin the "Grabber White" as I like to call it! I like the Performance White on my 08 Mustang. It's a lot cleaner and fresh looking in my opinion than some dingy off white which makes an older car look dated. I would not even have bought a white Mustang if it was any more off-white.

Well I keep going back and forth. I like the bright white better myself, but it seems a little modern for this car. If I had some big chrome rims and a custom interior, the bright white might work better, but since the car is mostly stock, I think it needs a more stock color. I haven't decided for sure yet...

Quote from: ipsd;330565

Yes that is an awesome paint job. That is how ford used to do it way back in the days before Spraying paint was around. It just took so much time it slowed down production. That is why we spray paint today. Ford had to work out the bottle necks in its production line.

I've heard that too. Its hard to believe, but I'm sure they were working a lot faster than I was!
Stuck

My Roller Paint Job

Reply #9 – August 04, 2010, 01:14:30 PM

I can confirm that you can get darn fine results so long as you don't need metallic paint. That Cougar looks fantastic.

I did my truck back in June. I have yet to do the final wet sand and buff.

I'm thinking seriously about doing my 86 Tbird in black. Originally it was going to be red/black.

My Roller Paint Job

Reply #10 – August 04, 2010, 02:13:41 PM

That truck looks great!

What paint did you use?

I'm getting ready to paint my first gen S10 and I was thinking about a two-tone like that. How did you do the two-tone without it bleeding under the tape?

My Roller Paint Job

Reply #11 – August 04, 2010, 06:36:40 PM

I used regular rustoleum thinned 50% with mineral spirits.

Believe it or not I painted both the grey and the white almost simultaneously resulting in taping, untaping, retaping over and over. I wanted to complete the job in 7 days but it took 9. One the eight day I painted the shell and installed in on the 9th day.

There was some minor bleeding of paint under the tape but I pulled the tape off while the paint was still somewhat wet so a little thinner on a rag got rid of it.

What you can't see well in the pictures is the black 1/8" pin stripes at the color transition. That hid minor flaws very well.:D

What really surprised me was each paint coat was dry enough to sand in 2-3 hours. We have very low humidity here. I don't think the humidity went over 20% any day that week and the temps were mid 70s to low 80s. It worked out perfect.

On all materials, paint, thinner, tape, rollers, 600, 800, 1500 and 2000 grit sand paper I spent $170. It's amazing how long the sand paper lasted when wet sanding. I didn't use all of any of the various grits and there were 5 sheets (the narrow sheets) in each package.

It's a LOT OF WORK but the savings is worth it. I procrastinated for at least 4 years before I decided to try it out. I'm sorta lazy and even at my age (57) I think I have mild ADD.

My days go like this:

Go out to wash the cars, notice that the garage floor needs sweeping, get the broom and decide that it would be better to clean off the work bench first, Oh the mailman came, decided to change the oil........Jeez where did the day go and never washed the cars.

My Roller Paint Job

Reply #12 – August 04, 2010, 11:28:47 PM

Quote from: tbirdsps;330728

........Jeez where did the day go and never washed the cars.

That happens to me all the time...

My Roller Paint Job

Reply #13 – August 07, 2010, 09:45:42 AM

Quote

I used urethane boat paint instead of Rustoleum because it is designed to withstand the elements.

It sticks good and is hard to chip, but is also hard to wet-sand small swirls and scratches out of after it's cured and will ash up over time if you don't keep on top of it and I mean REALLY keep on top of it....

My Roller Paint Job

Reply #14 – August 09, 2010, 12:17:16 PM

Yes, I learned the hard way about sanding scratches.:shakehead

What do you mean by "ash up"?